China plans to restructure its mining industry, forcing small coal mines to
merge together or join syndicates in an effort to improve safety conditions.

A body of one of the miners is
carried out of the mine pit of the Chenjiashan coal mine in Shaanxi
Province in the early hours of Wednesday. It has been confirmed all
of the over 100 trapped underground in the explosion were dead, bringing
the death toll in the accident to 166.
[Xinhua]

The National Development and
Reform Commission said the nation's 28,000 coal mines would be grouped into 13
clusters for more efficient supply and safety management, the South China
Morning Post reported Friday.

Official figures showed 24,000 of the mines were small operations.

More than 60 percent of China's energy demands depend on coal supply and the
situation will not change much over the next 20 or 30 years, said Dou Qingfeng,
president of the China Coal Information Institute.

Industry analysts say as many as 90 percent of small coal mines should be
closed for safety reasons. China outputs 35 percent of the world's coal, but
accounts for four out of five mine deaths.

The move comes less than a week after a gas explosion in a mine in Shaanxi
province killed 166 miners in the country's worst mining disaster in recent
history.

Small coal mines have also been accused of wasting resources, with resource
recycling at 10 to 15 percent, while at some large state-owned mines the figure
was about 60 percent.